It was an early start for us. We wanted plenty of time up our sleeves, so we left for the airport at 9:30 am even though our flight was not due to leave until 13:55. We had time for an early lunch before checkin. After checkin we had plenty of time to look around the duty free. We bought a couple of European to Australian power adapters. We boarded pretty much on time, and then sat there, and sat there. Eventually we had an announcement that there was problem with the baggage barcode scanning so it had to be done manually. We sat in the heat and endured, eventually leaving an hour late. After another 8 hours we arrived late in Singapore, but we had a generous stopover time to allow for such problems. The terminal was large and QANTAS staff had noticed our disabled son Bernard, so arranged a wheelchair for us. We walked past heaps of orchids.
That made getting to the gate for our 2nd flight a lot easier. The 2nd flight was also delayed a bit because of another connecting flight from Sydney being delayed. Everybody except me and Bernard checked email on the free terminals inside Singapore airport.
Singapore to Paris was a bit trying with us only able to grab a few hours sleep each in the 12 hours total. The in-flight entertainment made it easy for the kids to amuse themselves. The movie choice was reasonable, but I really must get some noise canceling headphones.
Tuesday's arrival (23/6)
We touched down early in Paris. I saw a Concorde on display as we taxied in. Again we had assistance for Bernard with somebody waiting with a wheelchair. She was a bit aloof as the typical Parisian can be. She was also in a hurry so we hurried to keep up even though Georgina wanted to take pictures of everything. We had a generous connection time for the TGV to Brussels and when I saw the queue from Immigration I was very glad. To my delight we zoomed past the gigantic queue up to the priority booths reserved for airline staff and VIPs.
We were through in no time. We then took a fairly tortuous confusing route through various levels and on a small train to collect our baggage. Because we had zoomed through so fast we had a small wait but we were well ahead of the pack so collected it all with ease and loaded up a trolley. We took off again in pursuit of our wheelchair pilot for the train station. We arrived with many hours to spare. We could not check our luggage in early so that put a damper on our plans for a quick trip into the city for a look around.
We wanted to visit the toilets so had to change some money for change to pay for the toilet visit - .50 euros each! The exchange rate was also a rip off at 42 euros per dollar. We checked out the train station and had a coffee and some of those absolutely brilliant French pastries you just can't buy in Australia, no matter how many shops you try. We rang our Belgian hosts Gilbert and Josee (Marie's sister) to check if arriving early suited. It did so we rushed to the platform and managed to get on a train a couple of hours early. They put us in the first class on the TGV, even though we had booked economy.
The ride was very smooth but also pretty fast. Along the way I noticed every small village had a church, much like those you see in WWII movies where a German sniper is hiding in the bell tower. I also saw some wind power windmills at various places. One place had a large number of mullock heaps which I later found out were from coal mines no longer in operation. One surprise was the train goes as fast forwards as backwards. There may be two fronts to the train. There was a single stop at Lille and after that the train went "backwards" to Brussels.
We arrived early and Josee and Gilbert were waiting for us.
I had a hire car organised, but we were early, so I was expecting a wait. The operators were cool about it and offered it to me unwashed which I gratefully accepted, with only a small wait for the paperwork. Gilbert was my teacher (first time driving a left hand drive vehicle) and guide for the streets of Brussels. It was a bit of a blur but we survived it. Josee took most of the luggage and everybody else who were too scared to travel with me! The car was a diesel Toyota Auris, which I think fits in between the Corolla and Yaris models available in Australia. It had air conditioning which many of the cars in Belgium don't need.
We had a lovely lunch organised for us before passing out for a sleep in the afternoon.
It gets dark here at 10:30pm so I went for a walk late in the day. The route took me past the local old church which is no longer in use and falling into disrepair. It went down a country lane, unpaved and under a very old brick railway bridge that also reminded me of all those WWII images in the war movies, which I guess have made up a large part of my image of France and Belgium. I passed fields of wheat, corn, potatoes, sugar beet and peas. All were in relatively small fields by Australian standards but the peas were being harvested by 3 giant harvesters. I guess it must be done under contract.
Wednesday - rest day (24/6)
We visited the church late in the day for a close look at it and the graveyard. We saw a porcupine there. Marie found some of her relatives graves, including the lady who used to own the old cheese factory and neighbouring chalet.
We inspected Josee and Gilbert's garden which has a large vege patch and raspberry bush.Raymond and Lena arrived late in the day to bring us some home grown berries. There were a lot of strawberries and some red currants.
Thursday - Aunt Marie-Therese (25/6)
Georgina spent the day with her pen pal and they ended up visiting a theme park - Parc Walabi.
We visited Marie-Therese who is the window of Marie's father's brother. She lives in Enghien in an old house. Apparently Marie's paternal grandparents lived in this house while theirs was being rebuilt after being bombed in WWII. This house was also damaged during WWI bombing. It was on a long block of land and had the remains of a fabulous garden, now let run a bit wild because she finds it a bit much to manage by herself. There was greenhouse close to the main house growing tomatoes. Next to the front door was a cherry tree. Further down was a vege patch and more fruit trees, some raspberry patches and blackberries and red currants. We sampled the cherries and raspberries.
We took a longer way back to the car so Marie could look at a house they briefly rented when they returned to Belgium in 1968.
After returning home we had rock melon and ham as an entree, served by our hosts Josee and Gilbert.
Friday - Atomium, Cousin Linette (26/6)
We visited the Atomium which is an impressive giant building sized model of an Iron molecule that was built for the Brussels exposition. There is a really good view of Brussels from the top. I was amazed at how close we could park to the Atomium which helped with Bernard.
We had a Bernard in a wheel chair and because you had to pay to enter it and Gilbert and Josee had seen it all before they took Bernard for walk in the park beside the Atomium. Afterwards we visited "The Village" near it which has an entrance to "Little Europe" inside.
I saw my first double decker merry-go-round.
We were planning to go in but the day was hot and we decided to skip it. The aircon in the hire car was bonus after that. We drove back to Bierghes to freshen up for our 7:30 dinner appointment.
We drove back into Brussels using the ring road to get to the far side of it. I recall a roundabout around a large fountain that was particularly scary with 4 lanes around it and a fair amount of traffic on it. As usual I was following Gilbert and because I had to concentrate so hard on staying close so other cars didn't continually cut in, I was completely lost. It makes it hard to learn the way when following someone all the time. We got there OK and managed to find some free parking close by. We walked to their townhouse which is 5 stories. They occupy the middle 3 floors and rent the upper and lower floors. They have a lovely collection of antique furniture.
Linette and her husband were quite the gourmets. We were served champagne and nibbles in the parlour while we chatted. Linette then vanished into the kitchen and a short time later we were called to dinner, starting with watercress soup. She then served rock melon and ham for entree. We started with a white wine and finished with a red to accompany the main course of medium rare steak.
Saturday - Cousin Yvette (27/6)
We visited the local Patisserie after breakfast and bought up a fair supply.
We visited Yvette after lunch and had coffee and chat. Yvette had asked some of her descendants to come along as well. Their house was the one Marie's mother was born in. It had been fairly extensively renovated but there were still plenty of signs of the age and history of the place. We adjourned to an old farm building that had been converted into a recreation room. It had an indoor Petanque area. I had played with my parents before but these guys were a little more serious. I watched the first game and then joined in for a couple of games. Paul, Yvette's husband was pretty good and knew how to take advantage of every little bump and hollow in the surface. Ivan, the husband of Marie-Paule, Yvette's daughter was good as was Gilbert. The rest of us were a bit erratic.
We had some beers while playing. I had a Grimberger. We had 3 games all up and then were called in for Supper. Again we had rock melon and ham as an entree. I suggested it was the new Belgian national dish. The supper was buffet style, with the majority of dishes having some seafood in them.
Sunday - Parc d'Enghien (28/6)
Again, first thing we visited the local patisserie and bought more pastries as we had scoffed most of Saturday's supply. Edward felt like a day off so stayed at home. I had my first outing driving by myself but it wasn't much of a challenge as we had been there before. We were going to town because they had a bit of a sideshow set up in city around the church for the holidays. Gilbert had given Marie directions to a parking area in the town.
We parked there and noticed a large park nearby that used to be a Baron's estate. We went in and had a look around.
It was an amazing place and we soon wore Bernard out. People were fishing around a lake.
We decided we need to go back some time. There were lots of old buildings and a huge area of parkland with lakes. We did a quick tour of the town and found another patisserie.
Late in the day we visited a local farm to buy milk. The building were fairly old.
Monday - Cousin Ramond (29/6)
Raymond is a distant relative who we know through family tree research into Marie's family. We have had extensive email communications with him over the years. He invited us to spend the day with him, so we left early and arrived around 9.30am. We sat in the sun room at the back of the house overlooking a huge back yard which was all completely filled with large vegetable patches and fruit trees and bushes. The conversation was both Flemish and French as Raymond's wife Lena spoke mostly Flemish. We were offered a glass of wine before 10:00. It was an aperitif and to my surprise a sparkling wine. I couldn't tell what the quality was like because it was served with a small dash of concentrated mixed berry juice being added the glass before the wine.
After that we had a tour of the back yard garden. He had a very good crop of red currants and white currants. I asked why he had so many bushes and he replied that he makes wine from them as well.
After that we went to the front of the house and across the street because he owns a large block over that side of the street as well. This was for his pair of sheep which, as soon as they saw us, started bleeting. One sounded like a normal sheep, the other more like a zombie sheep from the movie "Black Sheep" according to Edward. He fed them. The block was divided up the middle by a walkway that had grapes growing on both sides. It also allows the top end of the block to be closed off so the sheep can be restricted to one side of the block. I found a large hole in the fence near the back that Raymond had not noticed so we blocked it with some branches.
We returned to the house and got ready to leave. We took the scenic route to historic Aalst were Raymond used to work as a Taxman. We parked in the courtyard of a series of historic building used for government. As a retired man Raymond had rights to a meal at his place of employments canteen. He had arranged lunch for all of us there. The quality was good and certainly beat that available at my place of of work. After lunch we left the cars in the courtyard and exited a different way on foot and found ourselves in the main town square. Raymond gave us the grand tour. The burgermeisters house was very ancient as was the church on a different side of the square. We took lots of photos.
Bruno, Raymond's son, who we had also spoken to via email showed up as well. His English was good so I could chat with him for a bit.
We saw the urinals in the street, for men only. Bruno mentioned they were the new model - made of stainless steel with solar panels.
After a couple of hours wandering around we took a table at one of the numerous cafes bordering the square. It was hard to find a table for 10 people but eventually we did. I had a Leffe Brune beer in the cafe. Bruno shouted us all. We then walked back to the cars, farewelled Bruno and headed back to Raymond's house, where Lena served us supper. Late in the day one of Raymond's other children showed up with his family. We had a brief chat before heading home. We found that Raymond's granddaughter has digeridoo lessons, but only has a plastic one to practice on.
Tuesday - Beach (30/6)
The weather forecast for Tuesday was good so we had decided to go the beach almost on the French border. 1.5 hours later we knew it was wrong as the weather was pretty cool. We had dressed for warm weather. We took a roundabout walk to visit a friend of Josee and Gilbert's. On the walk there we could hear military jets overhead. Unfortunately the cloud/fog/smog meant we couldn't see them. They were practicing for an airshow. We had arrived there around lunchtime and just chose a small fast food/cafe with some booths out of the wind. It was a strange place as on the way out the back to the toilette there was a sound/video demonstration room. After lunch we visited the beach front and viewed the North Sea. The tide was out a long way.
Edward and Gilbert went for a walk to paddle in the Ocean. We stayed on the observation platform which had large glass walls to act as a wind break. The beach was like many in Australia, but with sand not quite as white. We walked back up a street and bought some "Australian Ice cream."
We walked to a museum for a famous Belgian artist Paul Delvaux. Unfortunately the entrance fee was a bit high so only Marie and Georgina decided to go in. Gilbert and Josee took Edward and Bernard for more of a walk. I waited outside. Marie and Georgina reappeared fairly quickly. After browsing the gift shop they decided they didn't want to view the museum based on the work they could see. It was mostly female nudes.
We drove north after that to visit a village with fish shops to buy fish to take back with us. Most of the shops were closed. The one that was open was doing a roaring trade. We crossed the esplanade to view the fishing boats. There were only a couple there. There were also a couple fo mussel boats tied up. Gilbert told me Belgium used to get all its mussels from The Netherlands but that now they had some of their own. They have these large buoys that have vertical steel bits dropping down below them a couple of meters. Around this they wrap a spiral of some sort of rope that mussels grow on. To harvest them the unwrap the spiral rope. They also have a large crane on the boat for lifting the entire thing out of the water.
After this we visited a village called Verne which also has very nice city square with some very old buildings around it. It also has a belfry that seems to ring every 15 minutes.
I had a Leffe Brune after getting back from the beach. We had the seafood Josse had bought. There were a couple of different types of prawns and a special type of young herring called ?????
Wednesday - Parc Asterix (1/7)
Nobody wanted to get going that early so we only left at 9.30. Since we needed to visit the bank to exchange some money first, it worked out OK. This time we got a much more reasonable rate of 56 euros per dollar. Josee and Gilbert live at Bierghes which is close to a big highway heading towards France, so a 2.5 hour drive was easy as Parc Asterix has its own exit. The highway speed limit is 120 in Belgium and 130 in France. The hire car engine chewed quite a bit of fuel at 130 km/h.
This was theme park which stuck to its theme beautifully. All the buildings and signage where spot on.
The rides had fair sized queues and in reality it is very much like Dreamworld if you strip all of the theme away. They had all the same sorts of rides, excepting the giant drop/tower of terror. The roller coaster was pretty savage. I went on it with Georgina and it really rattled our brains around inside our skulls. We both had headaches afterwards.
After leaving the Parc we were hungry as we had been cheap with the food in the Parc as it was very expensive. We stopped at a highway fuel station for dinner and were amazed at the quality of the food. No hamburgers and chips, but decent quality mains and exceptional desserts. We got back late and had missed Ludovic, Josee and Gilbert's 3rd son, and his family.
Thursday - Various Relatives(2/7)
I returned the hire car to Brussels again following Gilbert in because we have the loan of Josee and Gilbert's middle son, Frederick's car while he goes on holiday in Spain (weather forecast was for 37C so he will have a hot 9 days down there.) When we got back he was there waiting to be taken to the airport by Gilbert. We met Frederick and his wife Natasha and their cute red head daughter Marine. Marine is a shade of blue in French so I asked if the name was based on the Aussie convention of calling red heads blue. nuh!
In the afternoon we visited Catherine and Philippe and their son Adrien at Marcq, near Enghien. While we were there Marie, Edouard and Sophie also visited as it was Edouard's birthday. Catherine's sister Veronique also arrived for a while.
I had a Leffe Blonde with supper at home.
Friday - Sleep in (3/7)
We stayed around the house in the morning while our hosts played golf. In the afternoon we visited a boat lift that performs the same function as a lock. It lifts a boat and the water supporting it up a slope using railway lines and cables to pull it. Each side had 2 rows of 60 rail wheels to support the weight. There were also some other wheels at 90 degrees to the weight bearing rails.
After this we visited Josee and Gilbert's golf club, built into an old castle and its grounds. It looked impressive to me, with lots of facilities.
We came home to supper of traditional Belgian Mussels, completed with a Trappist beer of course - Tongerlo. I asked where was the rock melon? It is now a good standing joke.
Saturday - Medieval Festival (4/7)
By chance we had noticed some TV adds for a medieval festival. There was actually more than one. One caught our eye as it had jousting. We managed to convince Gilbert to drive the extra distance (about an hours trip) to Helecine an old castle and estate. The castle and estate by themselves were fairly impressive.
We arrived almost an hour late and I was a little disappointed as it seemed like there was not much there, but as the day progressed things really improved and there was plenty to see. We didn't leave until after 17:00. There were not that many people there either so it was easy to see most things. I tried another Trappist beer there: Heylissem Brune with a hearty lunch of stew.
There were impressive displays of birds of prey with owls and more traditional hunting birds.
There was an archery display with bows and a crossbow firing at targets.
They had a reasonable amount of skill and were rapid firing from quivers with a good degree of accuracy. Another display involved the firing of some very early cannon and hand held firearms. They sounded more like an explosion than a gunshot.
There was a lot of variation in the dress from that era and in the weapons. There were all sorts of axes and swords, pike/axe combinations. I also had not realised there was such a large variation in arrow heads.
There was a performance by one extraordinary fellow who played with fire, including eating it. He was dressed like Braveheart complete with the makeup. His next trick was lying down bareback on broken glass and having people stand on his stomach. When he stood up he had small chunks of glass still in his back, which his assistants plucked out. He followed up with a bed of nails and 2 large people standing on him. The next variation was nails on top as well as underneath with 4 people standing on top of the tails on top. He ended up with a few punctures after that lot and small dribbles of blood. He then went onto lying belly down on 8 axe blades and finished with lying on 3 swords.
By far the most impressive display was the jousting and lead up to it. It was the Belgian team
versus the French team.
There were all sorts of formal announcements followed by lots of warm up exercise and events.
They spear a fake pig and then move onto more difficult exercises, targeting various things with spears and the swords, before moving onto a pole aimed at rings only just larger than the pole diameter. One of the most accurate contestants had a helmet with a very thin slit. I wondered how he could see anything at all. The final event was the joust. They had a modified jousting pole where the final meter of the pole was a balsa wood insert that had slits in it so that when they hit the target (opponents left shoulder) it would split fairly easily. No doubt they don't want to damage each other too much. One of the contestants looked very much like the french bad guy in "Knights Tale." A lot of the passes resulted in complete misses by both riders but they were riding at a very good pace.
When 2 finally managed a hit on each other in the same pass the shattering of the pole tips was very spectacular. We salvaged a piece for Gilbert's grandkids.
They also had sword fights.
Some were fought in chain mail with helmets.
It was another hot day and the combatants tired easily swinging the heavy swords. A couple of women took the men on with the swords as well.
There was also a bout where a man with axe and shield took on a sword fighter. They had some instruction at the end of the demonstration for those who wanted to try. Late in the day they had a second round of jousting.
We headed home and had supper. Late in the day we had a visit from Ludovic and his son Maxime.
Sunday - sick child (5/7)
Bernard vomited shortly after waking up and just after his medication. He spend the rest of the morning sleeping. He took some apple juice without further vomiting so perhaps it is not too serious. We had another Belgian dish for lunch - chicken with leeks and vegetables. I had a Kriek St. Louis cherry beer with it. It was a bit too much like cherry softdrink for me.
After lunch we were waiting to see what Bernard did. He just kept sleeping so we decided on a trip to Waterloo. Marie had seen it before so stayed with Bernard. We arrived a bit late so had trouble cramming it all in before closing time. We ended up missing the film. The trip up to the top of the lion mound was fun with 226 steps. I can still keep ahead of the kids, much to Edward's amazement.
One of the pubs there claimed to have 100 beers available. So much beer, so little time.
Seeing all the commercialism at Waterloo I was reminded again how great our holiday is because we don't do so many typical tourist things but visit locals and experience the culture first hand. We are lucky to have relatives here to make that possible.
In Europe they still wonder what it would be like if Napoleon had won and unified Europe and Russia.
Bernard vomited a few more time during the night but slept very soundly all day and Sunday night.
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